Today marks the launch of Super Starter: Space-Time Showdown, and the dawn of the 5th generation of Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG monsters! But the introduction of Pendulum Monsters isn’t the only thing that’s changing in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG – there are also changes the basic rules of Dueling for the first time in a very long time. You can read about them in the Beginner’s Guide that comes with each Super Starter, and we’ll go over them today here on the Strategy Site as well. Remember, if you’re playing in the North American World Championship Qualifier this weekend, these changes are NOT in effect! If you’re playing in other tournaments this weekend, for example, a weekly tournament at your local OTS, the cards from Space-Time Showdown, including the Pendulum Monsters, are legal and the new Pendulum Zones are added to the field. There’s a Pendulum Summon Tutorial video available here. The actual changes to the basic rules do not come into effect until Monday, July 14th! That’s the same day as the new Forbidden & Limited Cards List goes into effect! For a summary of what’s changed, read on.

Pendulum Zones and Pendulum Summon

This is the only thingthat applies to this weekend, unless you are playing in the WCQ. The field layout has changed to look like this:

Two Pendulum Zones are added for each player. Only Pendulum Monster Cards activated as Spell Cards can be placed in these Zones. You cannot Set any cards in these Zones.

Pendulum Monster Cards can be Summoned like regular monsters in your Monster Zones, or activated as Spell Cards in your Pendulum Zones. They cannot be Set in your Pendulum Zones. You activate them like you would a Normal Spell, during your Main Phases only, and they begin a Chain just like any other Spell Card. After a Pendulum Spell resolves, it remains in your Pendulum Zone as a Spell Card unless it’s destroyed or removed from the field by another card effect. You cannot replace a Pendulum Spell with a new one unless the current one is destroyed or removed from the field by another card effect.

You can declare a Pendulum Summon once per turn during one of your Main Phases, much like how you can Normal Summon or Set a monster once per turn during one of your Main Phases. This is not an effect and does not start a Chain. When you Pendulum Summon, you can Special Summon as many monsters as you want from your hand and as many face-up Pendulum Monster Cards from your Extra Deck as you want, provided 2 conditions are true:

You have a card in each of your Pendulum Zones.

The Levels of the monsters you want to Summon are in between the Pendulum Scales of the cards in your Pendulum Zones.

You cannot Pendulum Summon a monster that has a effect that restricts how it can be Special Summoned, such as Wulf, Lightsworn Beast (“cannot be Special Summoned except by a card effect”) or Dark Armed Dragon (“Must be Special Summoned (from your hand) by having exactly 3 DARK monsters in your Graveyard, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways.”) or that the game rules disallow without a specific card effect, like Ritual Monsters. All of the monsters that are Pendulum Summoned are Special Summoned at the same time.

In addition to being usable as monsters or as Spells, with different effect text based on which you choose, Pendulum Monster Cards also have the unique property of being placed face-up on your Extra Deck if they would be sent from the field to your Graveyard, regardless of which Zone they are in.

Player 1 No Longer Draws During the First Draw Phase

Much like how Player 1 cannot conduct a Battle Phase during the first turn of the Duel, Player 1 does not conduct a normal draw for the turn during the Draw Phase of the first turn of the Duel. Remember, if you’ve won the coin toss to decide who goes first, you make that decision before you draw your opening hand.

Each Player Can Have 1 Field Spell on Their Side of the Field

Both players may now control an active Field Spell at the same time. You may send your Field Spell to the Graveyard in order to play a new one. The old one is not considered destroyed.

And that’s it! Those are all the changes introduced in the Super Starter: Space-Time Showdown Beginner’s Guide! Happy Dueling this weekend!